Pope Francis is an inspiring figure who sets a terrific example of humility and tolerance. On spiritual matters, he's a great teacher. On economic matters, maybe not so much.

In a speech to the United Nations last Friday, the pope called for all countries to redistribute their wealth to the poor and end the "economy of exclusion." Specifically he supported "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state."

If the pope is talking about helping the poor as much as possible, he's right on. If he's saying that the rich should pay their fair of taxes, he absolutely correct again. If he says those who obtain wealth through crooked means are wicked, he's hitting it out of the park.

But that doesn't make it OK to encourage redistributing wealth on a large scale. That violates the rights of successful individuals in many ways, and above all, it simply won't work. In fact, every communist nation on earth has proved that point for anyone who cares to look at the issue with an open mind.

Let's say you talk all of the wealth in a country and distributed it evenly to every single resident. Within a year in a free economic system, some people would be running low on cash and some would be quite well off. Within 10 years, some people would be mired in poverty and some people would be rich. Within a generation, that country would be just about back where it was before its wealth was redistributed in the name of fairness.

History shows that the best way to generate prosperity is to make it clear to people that they control their own fate - and then give them to the tools and opportunities to do just that.

Invariably, if you get an education or a skill, stay off drugs or booze and work hard, you'll do well in most countries. But if you're not very motivated or have kids outside of marriage or make really dumb choices, you won't do so well.

Is life fair for a child born into poverty? Of course not. That child, through no fault of his own, does not have an even chance to rise above his circumstances. We should aid those children as much as possible with scholarships, training programs, mentors, etc.

But even with that outreach, the focus must remain on people helping themselves, not sitting around waiting for the government to magically make their lives better with redistribution schemes.

It just doesn't work. Instead of increasing wealth, it will make everyone equally poor. And then we'd really have something to pray about.

-----------------------------

Thomas Taschinger, TTaschinger@BeaumontEnterprise.com, is the editorial page editor of The Beaumont Enterprise. Follow him on Twitter at @PoliticalTom